Opening day of baseball might be a big day that fans have been waiting for, but it’s a big day too that PepsiCo has been planning for. It plans a series of activations even as news broke this week that Coca-Cola would be taking over from PepsiCo as the official soft drink sponsor of Major League Baseball.
On April 10, as the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs step to the plate to open the 2017 season, PepsiCo will launch a full season of activations around team and players partnerships at ball parks across the country with its Pepsi and Aquafina brands.
In New York, a pre-game party kicks up outside Yankee Stadium, where former Yankee greats will make appearance along with a live mural created by famed Bronx artist Andre Trenier. Once the game ends, a party gets underway at Kola House, PepsiCo’s restaurant in New York City, with dinner and a live music performance produced by iHeartMedia.
“Caps Off to the Yankees,” a joint promotion among Pepsi, Yankees Catcher Gary Sanchez, New Era and artist Andre Trenier, where fans cab vote on their favorite Trenier-designed Yankees cap to be featured on a limited-edition series of New Era hats.
A new venture at Yankee Stadium, the 1893 Club, is a branded bar that overlooks the outfield where PepsiCo’s new craft cola, 1893, will play a central role. The cola will be introduced as a mixer for specialty drinks through six different recipes, like margaritas and 1893 and bourbon. The 350-person seating capacity holds the potential to have a real party going on.
“All sampling is based around new innovations that we’ve got launching,” says Melissa Duhaime, senior manager, sports marketing at PepsiCo. “It’s a great opportunity to do that because you have a captive audience that’s already excited about what’s going on.”
In Chicago, Pepsi will host a Chicago Cubs concert at Old Crow in Wrigleyville with country music artist Brett Eldridge. Aquafina will activate as part of the grand opening of The Park at Wrigley, with an interactive, life-size hologram of Chicago Cubs player Addison Russell that fans can “play” baseball with and share their experience on social media. It will sample 20,000 Aquafina bottles emblazoned with the Chicago Cubs Championship logos and street teams will be out in force promoting the activations and the sampling.
The MLB sponsorships activations will extend to multi-franchise partnerships in different cities and states throughout the season including Detroit, Kansas City, Mo., Cleveland, Miami and Arizona, with specific fan events for each market.
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